WEEKEND WOES: Utah voters of both parties gave incumbents a reason to fear the fall campaign, as Republicans rejected Sen. Bob Bennett in his bid for a third term and Democrats forced Rep. Jim Matheson into a primary when an opponent protesting his "no" vote on health care drew 45 percent support at the party convention. The Deseret News reports on Bennett's exit: "Bennett was tearful after being beaten, but said his tears came not because of the defeat but because he felt bad for his staff, most of whom were also crying. Bennett could still attempt to run a write-in campaign, but Utah law prohibits him from appearing on the ballot as an independent because the deadline for that has passed. 'We'll see what the future may bring. When I have anything to say about that, you'll be the second to know,' he told reporters." Businessman Tim Bridgewater and lawyer Mike Lee will compete in a primary for Bennett's seat. [Correction: An earlier version of this item incorrectly referred to the Democrat as Scott Matheson.]

And the Salt Lake Tribune captures Matheson's efforts to calm his intra-party critics: "Usually he is the only one in Utah's congressional delegation standing with them, he said. ... 'I get it,' Matheson told the crowd ... 'You're angry about some of my votes,' he said, drawing some ironic applause. 'But I'm a Democrat and I'm here to tell you I don't run from that label because it's in my blood.'"

Story Continued Below

THE BIGGER 2010 PICTURE: Utah isn't exactly a perfect microcosm of America, but both Bennett and Matheson were campaigning on classic arguments that incumbents use when they're viewed as ideologically out of step. Bennett's case that experience is a virtue couldn't dispatch the pair of political newcomers who said it was time for him to go, and Matheson's point that he's more supportive of the Democratic agenda than anyone else in Utah couldn't calm the protest vote against him. For other candidates planning to campaign on experience or expediency, that's a tough omen.

SCOTUS POLITICS: President Barack Obama is expected to name Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court Monday, putting judicial politics front and center for candidates this week. The politics of the confirmation process is likely to weigh most heavily on candidates most threatened in their parties' primaries, and POLITICO's Charlie Mahtesian wisely tweets: "In wake of Bennett loss/McCain primary, Sens. Hatch and Kyl (2 GOP yes votes for Kagan as SG) have a very different calculus now"

FIRST OUT OF THE GATE: Florida Senate candidate Kendrick Meek, seeking to lock up solid Democratic support in a three-way race, blasted out a statement on Kagan's nomination just after NBC broke the news last night, immediately declaring: "Unlike my two Republican opponents, I strongly supported Justice Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court. Like Justice Sotomayor, Kagan is a top-notch nominee who will interpret the law faithfully and put our Constitution first when making decisions."

PRIMARY WATCH -- ALAN MOLLOHAN WEEK: The election to watch Tuesday is the Democratic primary in West Virginia's 1st Congressional District, where longtime incumbent Alan Mollohan is facing possible defeat at the hands of state Sen. Mike Oliverio. Oliverio's been attacking Mollohan on ethics and staking out a generally more conservative issue profile, and over the weekend he picked up support from the Wheeling News-Register. The paper hung its endorsement on ethics: "West Virginians are not served well by a congressman with so many ethics issues hanging over his head. We are not served well by a lawmaker who votes against our interests so frequently - and whose support of the all-important coal industry has been so questionable."

RESCUE MISSION: POLITICO's Alex Isenstadt reported that the DCCC is doing its best to prop up Mollohan -- "The committee has offered Mollohan’s campaign field support, strategic campaign advice, and assistance with its press operation ahead of the May 11 primary election. .. Mollohan campaign manager Pamela Van Horn said Friday the DCCC had 'provided a lot of guidance and advice' and had acted as a 'sounding board' for the campaign. ... Federal Election Commission records show Mollohan has received a wave of campaign checks from fellow Democratic members in recent weeks, including Arizona Rep. Ed Pastor and California Rep. Sam Farr."

POLITICO SNEAK PEEK -- WELCOME TO THE GENERAL: Indiana Democrats are unveiling a website Monday, www.lobbyistdancoats.com, that paints the Republicans' newly chosen Senate nominee as a tool of Washington interests. The top of the page shows Coats's face, surrounding by corporate logos from Bank of America, Exxon, Goldman Sachs and more, and features the tag line: "Dan Coats: Lobbyist for them." State Democratic Party Chair Dan Parker will promote the site in an email, calling it a hub for information about "Dan's decade-long record as a Washington lobbyist putting special interests before Indiana's interests."

SPECIAL REPORT -- TO THE POLLS: Voters in the special election for former Hawaii Rep. Neil Abercrombie's district can start voting in person today, though some 20 percent of the electorate has already sent in ballots by mail, according to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin: "About 60,000 out of 317,000 registered voters in the district had returned their ballots as of Wednesday, officials said." That means that even if Democrats get lucky and momentum swings behind one of their two candidates currently splitting the vote -- former Rep. Ed Case and state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa -- Republican Charles Djou may already have racked up an advantage in early voting.

AND ON THE MAINLAND: The Johnston Tribune-Democrat threw its endorsement to Democrat Mark Critz in the special election for the late Rep. John Murtha's Pennsylvania district. The paper reinforced Critz's all-politics-is-local message, calling him "a confident leader, a vocal cheerleader for the region," and saying Republican Tim Burns's "knowledge of the local issues and players across the 12th district puts him far behind Critz."

SEIU'S TARGETS: The labor giant voted over the weekend to allot $4 million for organizing in seven governors races this fall, with newly elected SEIU President Mary Kay Henry announcing: "We will not only continue on the path we’re on in the political program – we intend to reinvigorate it and expand it." POLITICO's Ben Smith reports: "She suggested the union would be particularly invested in challenging Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, who signed a harsh law intended to stop illegal immigration. The governors races are in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, Ohio, and Florida. Henry also said the union would continue to focus on redistricting and on selected Senate races, while continuing to back independent challenges to Democrats who opposed health care in New York and North Carolina."

POLL OF THE DAY -- VULNERABLE: Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley has an early lead in his battle against former Republican Gov. Bob Ehrlich, but he's below 50 percent and Ehrlich's within single digits, according to the Washington Post poll. The paper explains: "As the campaign begins in earnest, O'Malley (D) holds a 49 to 41 percent lead among registered voters, … But among those who say they are certain to vote in November, the race is a dead heat, with both candidates drawing 47 percent."

KENNEDY TO THE CONVENTION: Vicki Kennedy will speak at the Massachusetts Democratic Party's June 5 convention, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports: "'This is the first time he won’t be with us in five decades,' said Party Chairman John Walsh. Mr. Walsh said the Democrats want an opportunity to focus on Mr. Kennedy’s historic legacy during the two day convention."

THE BIG MAP -- with POLITICO's Tim Alberta:

SENATE:

ARKANSAS: Democratic Lt. Gov. Bill Halter filed a complaint with the FEC against the conservative group Americans for Job Security, demanding that the group release its donor list while spending more than a million dollars running ads against him ahead of the May 18 Senate primary. AJS has been charging Halter with outsourcing jobs to India during his time in the private sector.

KANSAS: Baseball legend George Brett is going to bat for Rep. Jerry Moran in the Kansas Republican Senate primary. The former Kansas City Royal appeared at a fundraiser for Moran last Monday, and in a video interview explained his support for the congressman. "I like Jerry," Brett said. "We're very excited that we live in the state of Kansas because I think he's gonna make a big difference in our state."

NEVADA: Former Nevada GOP Chairwoman Sue Lowden is running a television ad that seeks to move past her comments that seemed to express nostalgia for the days when people could barter chickens and other commodities for health care. "Why are Harry Reid and my opponents attacking me? Because my conservative ideas are a threat to career politicians like them," Lowden says. "They want to make this about chickens and checks ... that's what's wrong with Washington."

NEW HAMPSHIRE: The Union Leader's Sunday editorial page strongly criticized Republican Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte -- and Democratic Gov. John Lynch -- for having destroyed e-mails related to the state's investigation of the FRM Ponzi scheme. Taking issue with the practice of destroying the e-mail records of outgoing attorneys general, the Union Leader wrote: "Ms. Ayotte may be able to slough off specific questions about the FRM probe for awhile, but her role in the treatment of e-mail records in her own office demands answers now."

OHIO: Republican Senate candidate Rob Portman is distancing himself from the NRSC's web ad attacking Democratic Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher's record on the economy. The NRSC video featured a shirtless photo of Fisher, who won his party's Senate nomination last week, while showing negative Ohio jobs statistics. Portman said he disapproved of the ad, saying: "The issue at hand is jobs ... and we need to be sure we're focused on what Ohioans care about."

HOUSE:

CO-07: Former Republican Rep. Bob Beauprez, who held the 7th District seat for two terms before running for governor in 2006, endorsed veteran Lang Sias in the GOP primary this year. Sias is vying with Aurora City Councilman Ryan Frazier for the right to face Rep. Ed Perlmutter, and Beauprez gave Sias his blessing in no uncertain terms: Congress is full of overly self-impressed, unprincipled people obsessed with the title and trappings of the office. Lang has already achieved more than enough titles, promotions, and awards. ... He actually wants to go to Congress to serve us."

ID-01: Republican Vaughn Ward is denying Democratic claims that he worked for Democrat Tim Kaine's gubernatorial campaign while he lived in Virginia in 2005, and played down a report that he interned for a Democratic lawmaker in Boise. A spokesman for Ward, who is seeking the GOP nomination to challenge Democratic Rep. Walt Minnick, insisted the internship was not arranged on the basis of ideology and that Ward "was not a supporter of Gov. Kaine whatsoever." Ward is running against state Rep. Raul Labrador in the primary.

FL-22: Veteran Allen West has managed to avoid public blowback after saying that Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio should be "ashamed" for not fully supporting Arizona's immigration law. Both senior Republicans avoided responding to West, who's running against Democratic Rep. Ron Klein. "I don't think he's been briefed about my views," Bush said. "I've talked to him once in my life." Rubio said he didn't hear West's remark: "I'm not going to comment on something I didn't hear."

WI-07: Sean Duffy, the Ashland County district attorney who's running for House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey's now-open seat, is campaigning as an unapologetic opponent of the earmarks the outgoing Democrat has secured for his district. "We'll thrive in that competition when you take the crutch of Obey earmarks away," he said in an interview with POLITICO. And Duffy argued that his past as a "Real World" star on MTV wouldn't hamper his campaign: "We have a good Christian base in our district – it’s a base that says listen, people make mistakes in their life, but where do you stand today?"

GOVERNORS:

FLORIDA: Republican state Attorney General Bill McCollum is losing ground in both the GOP primary and general election for governor of Florida, according to a Mason-Dixon poll. He still leads both races, but a wave of advertising from self-funding former health care executive Rick Scott has cut McCollum's advantage in the primary to just 14 points, and the longtime lawmaker leads 38 percent to 24 percent. In a general election match-up with Democratic state CFO Alex Sink, McCollum has a nine-point advantage, down from a 15-point edge in March.

MARYLAND: Martin O'Malley is already on the air with a radio ad attacking his opponent, Bob Ehrlich, for his record on spending. In a 60-second spot, titled "Bob Ehrlich's Fantasy Land," O'Malley takes issue with Ehrlich's "fairy tale of leaving office with a budget surplus," saying instead that Ehrlich approved "record spending increases."

MINNESOTA: Republican state Rep. Tom Emmer, who has secured the GOP nomination for governor, leads the Democrats' endorsed candidate, state House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, and a third-party contender, Tom Horner, in a poll commissioned by KSTP-TV and conducted by SurveyUSA. Emmer takes 41 percent to Kelliher's 31 percent, with 17 percent undecided. Kelliher is still running in a competitive primary against former Sen. Mark Dayton and former state Rep. Matt Entenza.

SOUTH CAROLINA: ReformSC, an advocacy group that's been strongly supportive of Gov. Mark Sanford's agenda, is dropping $400,000 on ads to boost state Rep. Nikki Haley's campaign for governor. The ads, which come in the last month before the GOP primary, will spotlight Haley's support for reforming the voting process in the state Legislature, and could give Haley a much-needed boost against her three better financed primary opponents.

TENNESSEE: Rep. Jimmy Duncan, a conservative Republican who's never endorsed in a gubernatorial primary before, backed Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam for the GOP nomination Sunday. Haslam's critics have pegged him as a moderate, but Duncan called him "an authentic conservative in any way." One of Haslam's primary opponents, Rep. Zach Wamp, serves with Duncan in the House.

2012:

MAKING A LIST: Tim Pawlenty is responding to last week's court ruling that overturned cuts to the Minnesota state budget by instructing the government to triage discretionary spending in the event that some needs to be cut off. The court decision put current budget negotiations in peril, the AP reports, and while Pawlenty is tamping down talk of a government shutdown, he says the state is facing "an imminent and severe cash flow crisis."

About The Author

Alexander Burns is a senior political reporter for POLITICO. During the 2012 campaign, he co-authored POLITICO’s Burns and Haberman blog, which was widely recognized as one of the authoritative resources on the presidential election. Prior to that, Burns created the daily Morning Score political tip sheet and edited the POLITICO44 page. A graduate of Harvard College, where he edited the Harvard Political Review, Burns has appeared on television and radio as a political analyst and has been a guest speaker at New York University, the University of Kansas’s Dole Institute and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics, among other schools.